Internet users have available to them many news sources. Referring to FIG. 1, which shows an exemplary prior-art system for on-line news distribution, client computer 18 is connected to the Internet 16 and a user reads articles displayed on web browser 19. Articles are delivered to client computer 18 by Internet connected news servers 10, 12, and/or 14. There may be many more news servers than what is shown. As is well known, articles are displayed in web browser 19 simply by typing in the web address, (universal resource locator or universal resource identifier) of any of the news servers 10, 12, or 14. News servers such as 10, 12, and 14 may supply news from sources such as Agence France-Press (AFP), Reuters, Associated Press (AP), Los Angeles Times, New York Times, USA Today, National Public Radio (NPR), CNN.com, Slashdot.org and thousands of other online local, regional, national, and international news outlets.
There are many other websites where Internet users can receive news, such as Yahoo! News (http://news.yahoo.com) and Google News (http://news.google.com). While these, and like websites do not typically generate any original news content, they do provide a convenient way for Internet users to view articles from a multiplicity of sources. For example, Internet connected news aggregator server 20 receives articles from news servers 10, 12, and 14. Client computer 18 connects to news aggregator server 20, and may optionally connect directly to any other news server connected to the Internet.
A news story, or article, whether supplied directly from a news server such as news servers 10, 12, and 14, or from a news aggregator server, such as news aggregator server 20, comprises text, and optionally images. A newsmaker is anyone who appears in the news story. An article may comprise one or more than one newsmaker. For example, a story written about a policy proposed by the President of the United States may contain a quote from the president, from the president's spokesman, from a senator, from a judge, from a political commentator, and from a “man on the street”. All of these people are newsmakers.
Some news servers and news aggregator servers provide forums, also called discussion forums, comment forums, comment boards, message boards, and the like, for readers to comment on a selected story. In most cases, a reader can enter the forum associated with a story by clicking a link available at the bottom of the story. For example, news server 14 communicates with forums 15, and news aggregator server 20 communicates with forums 21. Forums 15 enables a user at client 18 to comment on an article supplied by news server 14, whereas forums 21 enables a user at client 18 to comment on any story or article aggregated by news aggregator server 20, such as articles from news servers 10, 12 and 14. Forums are well understood by those of ordinary skill in the art.
FIG. 2 shows an exemplary prior-art screenshot image of an on-line article displayed in a web browser. Almost every on-line article accessible via the Internet and displayed in a web browser is comprised similarly, although the exact layout may differ. The web page is comprised of the following: the name of the news source or news aggregator 29; a search bar or search function 23; the story including the headline and the author 22; an image 24; online advertising 25; an “email story” link or button 26; a “print” link or button 28; and, as discussed above, a “discuss” link or button 27 to enter a forum associated with the article.
A forum associated with a popular article may receive hundreds or even thousands of comments a day. While providing an outlet for readers to express their opinion, these forums do not necessarily provide any useful, valid, or enlightening information. In fact, it is well known that posts to forums such as these are rarely pertinent to the story, and often consist of outrageous or shocking comments meant to provoke others. It is nearly universally true that readers who post comments have no relation to any of the newsmakers in the story, and their comments amount to little more than chatter between readers. This remains the case even for moderated forums where a person, that is the moderator, or a group of people who are registered to moderate such as in Slashdot.org, reads through each comment submitted by every reader and approves each post. This is clearly impractical and extremely time consuming for popular forums, and besides, provides little, if any, benefit in terms of enhancing the content of the article.
In the event a newsmaker, that is someone who is mentioned in an article, desires to comment on the article, the newsmaker may post a comment in the same manner as any other reader. Newsmakers, however, almost never comment in these forums; it is a waste of time because, among other things, there is no differentiation between a comment from a newsmaker and a comment from a random reader. And it is extremely common for readers to post comments pretending to be a newsmaker. For example, in a story where the newsmaker is Bill Gates, it is almost a certainty that a reader who is not Bill Gates will post a comment using the name “BillG”, “BillGates”, or similar. Whether the reader actually expects to be believed as the newsmaker is irrelevant; the effect is that the any residual relevancy the forum may have had to the article or newsmaker is completely eroded. As a result, even if the newsmaker posts a comment, the comment gets lost in the chatter of the forum.
In addition to this, a newsmaker who desires to correct or formally comment on the article has no expeditious, convenient, and reliable way to do so; the only recourse is to attempt to contact the publisher, the author of the article, or the editor of the article and implore them to publish a correction or addendum containing the newsmakers comments or corrections. Unsurprisingly, publishers are loath to do this. In the unlikely event the newsmaker is successful, at best, the publisher, author, or editor publishes an edited version of the newsmaker's comments, sometimes days after the original article was published. Thus a need presently exists for a newsmaker verification and commenting system.